Hertz tentatively agrees to sell some airport locations

NEW YORK

A Hertz rent-a-car shuttle bus drives by a Dollar Thrifty rent-a-car lot near the Detroit Metropolitan airport in Romulus, Michigan, May 9, 2011.

Reuters/Rebecca Cook

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hertz Global Holdings Inc has tentatively agreed to sell around a dozen car rental locations at U.S. airports as a remedy to win over U.S. regulators for its proposed acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Hertz was being pressed by antitrust regulators to shed at least a dozen airport locations.

By shedding the airport locations, Hertz is hoping it will allay concerns from the Federal Trade Commission that a combination of the rental-car giants will give them too much control, particularly at airports, which would harm consumers, the Journal said.

Officials at Hertz, Dollar Thrifty and the FTC could not be reached immediately for comment.

Hertz has more than 3,900 airport and non-airport locations in the United States. Dollar Thrifty on its website says it has about 585 outlets in the United States and Canada, but does not give a breakdown between the two countries.

Hertz in August agreed to buy Dollar Thrifty for about $2.56 billion. Last week, Hertz extended the expiration date of its tender offer to November 16. (Reporting By Nadia Damouni; Editing by Leslie Adler)